RAZELLE BENALLY

TRIBE: Oglala Lakota / Diné

MEDIUM: Filmmaker

LOCATION: Chinle, Arizona

Razelle Benally is an emerging independent filmmaker dedicated to creating storieswith strong Indigenous female protagonists and hopes to bring a new perspective to the male-dominated film industry that has a history of marginalizing Indigenous peoples.

She has helped facilitate several film workshops with Native youth in Oregon, South Dakota and New Mexico. Her film work hasshown in Portland, Oregon, Long Beach, California, Phoenix, Arizona, and internationally in Winnipeg Manitoba, Canada, and Stockholm, Sweden. She was the 2010 Santa Fe Indian Market jury-awarded winner for Best Documentary in SWAIA’s Classification X and is an alumna of the 2012 Sundance Institute Native Filmmakers Lab as well as an awardee of the 2015 Sundance Institute Native Short film Production Grant for her most recent completed work I Am Thy Weapon.

Benally’s 2015 Short Film The Blanket was the 2016 New Mexico FilmFoundation’s Student Showcase winner for Best Narrative, Best Actor, and Best Overall Film of the Showcase. I Am Thy Weapon also won SWAIA’s 2016 Classification X: Best Short Narrative.